[splat-uhs-FEER-ik] adj. The kind of rebound that doesn't go exactly as planned.

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Friday, November 30, 2012

Splat of the Week: Marriage in the golden years

National
Blog Posting Month ends with a splat, exactly as it should. (Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me!)

This time
the weekly title goes to the beleaguered institution of marriage.

Divorce has been pummeling it for decades but
I figured divorce had the decency to hit above the belt and aim mainly at recent unions among the relatively young. It came as a surprise when I read an
article in the Daily Mail this week (and an earlier piece in the New York
Times) and learned that long-time married Baby Boomers are splitting in record
numbers, too. It’s a punch to the marital
gut.

Both
articles cite financial independence as a divorce enabler. On reaching their sixties, many couples have
dealt with major expenses like college tuition and want to enjoy a little bit
of single living before they transition to the assisted kind.

Given the size of the aging Boomer population and
the increasing tendency of younger generations to eschew marriage
altogether, marriage may take a beating for a while.

But bad news almost always has an
upside if you look hard enough for it, and that’s true here, too. If divorce
among forty-somethings caused a boom in the cougar population, the tide may be changing for the once-endangered snow leopard.

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About Me

I turned 40 in June of 2011. Shortly thereafter I realized I needed to end my 10-month marriage. Making this decision was difficult --you don't exactly brag about being married a Kardashian length of time-- but the mechanics of executing this huge fresh start (and a whole series of related little ones) proved even more daunting. My attempts to bounce back --both recent and not--haven't always ricocheted off the proverbial wall with the gusto I envisioned. Sometimes they hit it with a resounding "splat" and slide down before landing in a heap on the dirt. This blog chronicles adventures in splats --largely mine but guest splatters will be featured as well--with the hope that the posts will evoke laughter, provoke the occasional thought, and prove that even the messiest ones usually work out just fine. Eventually.

Have You Ever Splat-ted? Tell me about it!

Have a good "splat" story to share? Email me at splatospheric@gmail.com. (Names and other incriminating details can be changed to protect the splatted, of course!) I'd like to write about other people's adventures as well as my own. While I'm vain enough to have started a blog, I have just enough self awareness to know that not everyone will find me as interesting as I do. There's simply no accounting for taste.